Pain abbreviated Px?

[cowboy_carl]

I've been using Px as an abbreviation for pain. I never really learned that in school, but some of my co-workers use it. I can't find anything that proves that this is a legitimate abbreviation. Any references?

[flashpoint]

Sometimes NOT using abbreviations can get you into trouble. A place I worked didn't have EMT on their list...so..after a friend was reprimanded for using an unapproved abbreviation, I wrote in a transfer note...Report and care turned over to Bob Smith, Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic and Fred Jones, Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Technician-Basic / Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic student. The ER Coodinator and the ER manager thought it was funny...the director of nursing did not. :) They added the EMT stuff to the approved list the next day.

[Quickbeam, BSN, RN]

Abbreviations are the bane of my existence. I review tens of thousands of medical records every year. I swear people just make stuff up. I've never seen pain written as px, though.

At one job long ago we couldn't figure out an abbreviation written by a nurse. Finally she came back from a vacation and told us that BSB was "bed side bag". None of us had ever seen that before.

[Larry77, RN]

Abbreviations we use frequently at my place of work:

NAD-no apparent distress

PWD-pink warm and dry

CMS-color movement sensitivity

EMS-Emergency Medical Services

LCTA-Lungs clear to auscultation

PERLA-Pupils equal, reactive to light, accommodating

many others but these are ones off the top of my head.

and we do use Px for Pain

(in the 3-4 hospitals I've worked at in this area as well)